Helping Hand
by Panda Gravy
Summary: When Logan feels mildly responsible for James breaking his wrist, he becomes somewhat obsessed with helping James in his everyday tasks, including ones that may cross the boundaries of "best friends." NC-17 Jagan


James broke his wrist on a Saturday at the studio and Logan knew Gustavo would be angry. Either at him or at James, but most likely at both of them. Though the fault was probably equal on them. In Logan's opinion, at least.

What happened was this. James had wanted to learn to do a backflip and had begged Logan up and down to teach him. So during their break time in the middle of recording, he and Logan went to Studio A to learn. Logan had demonstrated a few times and told James exactly what he needed to do to execute the backflip correctly; tuck his knees, hold his arms right, keep his head straight… To be honest, Logan had been somewhat worried about this and he didn't really want James trying it. But what could he do? He'd never been able to talk James out of anything in his life, and this was no exception. The guy was stubborn. And whiny. And he wanted to land this backflip today, no matter how much Logan encouraged that they go somewhere without a hardwood floor. Which proved to be a good encouragement, because when James jumped into the air, propelling himself back, his legs over his head, time slowed down in Logan's eyes. He saw immediately that James was not going to land on his feet. And it was even worse when he saw James put his hands out to catch himself, the gut instinct, even though he should have held his hands to himself. If he'd have done that, none of this would have happened. In fact, if he would have just listened to Logan and waited, none of this would have happened. Then again, Logan could have just refused.

Now, James was laying on the floor moaning and holding his arm to his chest. Logan stared for a second, horror filling in his chest, before he rushed to his friend, falling to his knees next to him.

"James? James, you've gotta sit up. Tell me where it hurts," Logan told him, taking him by the shoulders and trying to get him to sit up.

James at least rolled onto his back, but wouldn't sit up. Instead, he just clutched his right wrist to his chest, and Logan noticed that he was keeping his fingers loose, which worried him. "It hurts everywhere," James groaned, then frowned up at Logan. "Why'd you let me do that?"

Logan was taken aback and gasped, taking his hands off James. "What? Because you forced me to! Don't blame this on me!"

But James squeezed his eyes shut and whimpered a little and Logan felt like maybe it was his fault a little. He easily could have just told James that he wasn't qualified to teach him something like a backflip. He practically encouraged it, if he thought back on it. "Please, James, sit up…" he asked again, gentler, and tried urging James up by the shoulders. It worked, and he had James sitting in front of him, hunched forward and still cradling his arm, when Kendall darted through the doors, Carlos directly behind him and Gustavo and Kelly a few moments behind him.

"What happened?" Kendall cried, his voice jumping up. As soon as Carlos saw James and Logan sitting on the floor, he flew to his knees to join them, looking extremely worriedly at James, then questioningly to Logan, then back to James. Kendall came to them, too, standing and looking down at Logan, who he expected a response from more than James at this point.

Logan looked up at Kendall, then to the very expectant Gustavo and Kelly in the doorway, and finally refocused on James. He eased James' right arm away from his chest as he spoke. "James… fell. Sort of. He was trying to do a backflip and he landed on his arm…" Despite James' struggling, Logan held his hand now, looking at the wrist carefully. He noted the swelling and bruising that was already beginning to occur and, again, the fact that James' fingers were limp. He looked up at Kendall, preferring to break the news to him rather than Gustavo. "I think his wrist is broken…"

That was probably something Logan shouldn't have said out loud, he realized, because everyone reacted at once. Carlos and James both let out cries of distress, the former latching onto the latter immediately. Kendall groaned and began berating Logan with questions, while Gustavo and Kelly both just started yelling. Logan winced at the onslaught of noises and squeezed his eyes shut for a moment before he finally exclaimed over everyone else, "Okay! Does anyone want to actually take him to the _hospital_, maybe?"

There were a few seconds of silence, even from James, who seemingly forgot the pain in his wrist out of surprise for Logan's outburst. Finally, Kelly said, "I'll start up the car," and hurried out, followed by Gustavo. Logan took James gently by the upper arm and helped him stand, keeping the damaged wrist steady, which proved difficult with Carlos attached to James like was, sobbing actual tears. Even James wasn't actually crying.

It was Kendall who had to coax Carlos off of James, since he was hindering more than helping, and guided James from his other side through the studio, Carlos bounding behind them like a worried, sobbing puppy. Logan kept turning back to tell Carlos that everything was alright and he needed to stop panicking or he would make things worse. Of course, it didn't have much of an effect when James kept feeling the urge to turn to Kendall and tell him that his arm was hurting _so_ bad and that he was seeing white and getting dizzy. Luckily, Logan recognized the symptoms of a panic attack and hurried them out to the car.

The ride was uneventful, as Logan was finally able to get Carlos to stop crying and Kendall made sure James didn't pass out or go into hysterics, which made Logan very grateful to have the fearless leader with him. He didn't think he would be able to handle keeping James and Carlos both calm at the same time. But he still kept a careful eye on James for the whole car ride. It wasn't the worst injury James had ever had; Logan knew that because he had always been the first person at James' side whenever he got hurt on the ice. He'd broken more substantial bones before, but not by much, and not for a long while. So it was understandable why he looked pale and his eyes were squeezed shut while he clenched his jaw. Logan knew it wasn't his fault, but he still couldn't help but feel bad. James was in a lot of pain, and he could have easily prevented it by telling him "_No_."

…

Logan had been fully prepared to hear the doctor tell James it would take over a month for his wrist to heal. It wasn't a little sprain, it was _broken_, and Logan could visualize each of the eight little carpal bones that had been cracked without even having to see the x-ray. A fractured scaphoid here, a snapped hamate there, topped off with some splintering in the capitate… Logan had been the only one to visibly recoil when he saw the damage on the x-ray, while Gustavo was much more concerned with how soon James would be healed.

It would be almost six weeks, maybe longer, before James could get the cast off. Logan could have told Gustavo that.

In order to ease his own irrational feelings of guilt, Logan had turned himself into James' personal chore service. He would straighten James' room, make his plate for him at mealtimes, even pack his bookbag for him before school in the mornings.

Noticing Logan's borderline obsessive behavior with assisting James, Kendall joined Logan at the sink after dinner one day when Logan had taken over James' dish-washing duty. "Don't you think you're taking this helping-James-out thing a _little_ too far?" he asked, keeping his voice low as James and Carlos were on the couch. Carlos was destroying some three-dimensional video game monster while James watched with rapt attention, cheering every so often.

"What? No! No, I'm just trying to make things easier for him so he can heal faster. We all are!" Logan rebutted as Kendall took a dishrag to begin drying the dishes Logan washed.

"Okay, yes, but _you're_ cleaning his room and writing his homework for him," Kendall argued as he stacked plates, not really paying much attention whether they were dry or not.

Logan sighed and rolled his eyes. "He can't write; he broke his dominant wrist."

"I know you know he could still write. He could use the other hand, even. The doctor said that and even if you hadn't been paying attention, which I _know_ you were, you would still know. Now come on, Logan. Be straight with me." Kendall put his hand on the counter, leaning a little closer to Logan. "You feel responsible for him breaking his wrist and you _really_ shouldn't."

Logan hesitated in scrubbing the glass in his hand, but quickly shoved the sponge into it, rubbing a little harder than necessary at invisible marks. He didn't respond for a moment while he avoided looking at Kendall, but finally said, "He wouldn't have hurt himself if I had just told him I wasn't qualified to teach him how to do a backflip."

Kendall groaned, turning away from Logan to put away some cleaned dishes. "He wouldn't have hurt himself if he wasn't _stupid_. It has nothing to do with you!"

Whatever Logan was scrubbing at apparently refused to come off, because he continued working at the inside of that cup, still not looking at Kendall as he sputtered out, "Well… it's—it's a series of events that each could have been prevented by multiple different choices being made by different people. Maybe—maybe James wouldn't make stupid decisions if you hadn't smacked him in the head at forty-miles-an-hour with a hockey puck when we were ten!"

"Hey. That was an accident and I felt bad after I was done laughing, okay?"

"My point is it doesn't matter why it happened, I contributed to the situation and I feel bad. So… just let me work off my karma debt, okay?" Logan finished cleaning the glass, which was the last dish in the sink and set it on the counter, finally meeting Kendall's eye.

Kendall considered Logan for a few seconds before he just sighed and dried off the glass. "Okay, fine. Just don't be surprised when he comes out of this completely spoiled and expecting everything to be done for him." He set the glass in the cupboard and shut it with punctuation. Logan watched Kendall go over to the couch and drop down next to Carlos, picking up a controller. He pursed his lips. Stupid Kendall and always making stupid good points.

…

Kendall's talk certainly discouraged and deterred Logan, but it didn't stop him from doing James' laundry. It was only a few days after their discussion in the kitchen that Logan was folding James' clothes carefully after he'd taken them from the dryer. They were still hot, too, which didn't make them unpleasant to handle, to be honest. Logan liked the feel of James' designer cotton t-shirts freshly fluffed by dryer sheets. No matter how many times they got washed, James' clothes always seemed to stay bright and soft. Logan guessed James paid so much for them for a reason.

But on the short walk to James' room, Logan still considered what Kendall had suggested. That he was spoiling James, leading him to simply expect things from Logan. But that wasn't entirely true, was it? James still thanked Logan every time he did him a favor, and seemed to genuinely appreciate it. Though if Logan thought about it, there had been a couple times James hadn't even bothered to ask Logan to take care of something for him, he had just waited for it to happen. Maybe Logan was doing too much, taking his assistance a little too far, even if most of it he actually _wanted _to do for James…

Logan held the laundry basket against his hip as he opened James' bedroom door without knocking. "Hey, I got your clothes out of the—"

"_Logan_!" James yelped, scrambling to grab at the sheets on his bed.

"Wha—" Logan almost asked what was wrong, but barely got out a syllable before he noticed that James was sitting on his bed, pants worked down his thighs and the waistband of his boxers sitting just above them, leaving him fully exposed. Which explained why he was trying to get his hands on his sheets to cover himself.

The laundry basket fell from Logan's hands, which flew to his eyes, and James' freshly washed and folded clothes tumbled onto the floor. "Sorry! Sorry, I was just—j-just bringing in your laundry! I washed your clothes! I was—I was being—sorry!" he began explaining, keeping his hands held over his eyes.

"Geez, Logan! I thought you would knock!" James protested, his voice still a little higher than usual, probably from the shock of literally being caught with his pants down. Logan took his hands from his eyes, but kept them fully averted as he dropped to his knees, scrambling to neatly put James' clothes back in the basket as he continued to apologize profusely.

But James fell silent and Logan chanced a careful glance up to see if he had covered himself up yet, his hands still shaking a little as he refolded a pair of boxer-briefs—which suddenly felt embarrassingly ironic.

James was holding his sheets over his crotch now, but Logan could still clearly see the semi-erection he had apparently worked up for himself. However, he could also see James eying him carefully there on the floor, so he swallowed anxiously and put the last of the clean clothes in the basket, setting it aside near the foot of James' bed.

Logan stood and started out of the room, feeling a little hot in his face. Who wouldn't after walking in on their best friend masturbating? "Sorry—sorry again…"

"Well, hey, wait…" James started, his voice pitched normal again, but definitely a little shaky. "This is… sorta hard, you know… uh—difficult," he clarified, though most meanings of the initially chosen word could probably stand true.

Logan couldn't stop his face getting hotter as he nervously glanced back to James, who held up his casted wrist a little bashfully. That was a weird expression to see on James Diamond, Logan noted. "You could… uh… use your other hand?" he suggested, remembering what Kendall had mentioned about writing. It felt odd, though, to be giving James advice on jacking off.

James was clearly as awkward as Logan in this situation as he made a face. "It… I can't really… uhm, maneuver right…" he confessed, gesturing with his left hand for emphasis, to show that he was having issues moving his wrist in the right directions on that side. Logan figured it made sense, considering that if a person didn't practice anything with their non-dominant hand, they wouldn't be well-coordinated or strong on that side at all.

He shifted a little, still standing by the open door, half in and half out of the room. "I'm… not really sure what to tell you, dude…" he finally said, trying to look everywhere but at the part of the sheet raised off of James' lap.

There were a few long seconds of silence before Logan tried slipping out of the room again, and, again, James stopped him. "You—…you could… help?" James voice shrank considerably through that very short sentence to the point where Logan may not have even heard the last word if his sense of hearing hadn't been super-tuned by the shock to his system only moments before.

He didn't leave the room, though, and his eyes weren't averted from James anymore. They were fully focused on him, noticing the redness in his cheeks, either from awkwardness or earlier stimulation, and the way he looked very earnestly at Logan. Logan just swallowed, still standing halfway in the door and he really wasn't sure how to react. How does one normally react to a situation like this? Well, he figured, one wasn't normally in a situation like this to begin with, because one didn't normally do another one constant favors to make up for an invisible crime.

When Logan didn't respond, but also didn't make any moves to run for the hills, James sighed, dropping his hands exasperatedly on either side of him. "I kinda need this, man… and _this,_" he lifted his broken wrist. "Is really making things hard for me."

Logan understood, of course, that sexual frustration without any outlet could really be a pain, especially for a teenage boy who wasn't used to going for long stretches without masturbating. There was even science behind it with the release of chemicals that relieved stress and even headaches and Logan could easily imagine that James was suffering some.

With a little trepidation, Logan stepped into the room, shutting the door behind him. Part of him gave a terrified yelp on the inside and demanded that he turn right back around, go to his room, forget about all of this, and to _never_ give James a handjob _ever_. But Logan stayed, hovering by the door as he watched James' expression relax. He almost smiled, Logan noticed, but maybe it was just relief. "What can I—" Logan's voice cracked and he cleared his throat, stepping a little closer. "What can I do?"

James licked his lips briefly before he took the sheets from his legs, showing Logan what he'd already seen when he first entered the room; James' pants and boxers down, hugging his thighs, revealing his mostly erect dick. Logan tried to focus on James' face, but his peripheral vision still caught everything. He really couldn't help but notice that James had grown since the last time they were in the showers together after a hockey game. A little longer, a little thicker… not that Logan had ever really taken stock before, but it was impossible not to see everyone's everything after team sports. Right?

Logan took a breath as he sat down on the edge of James' bed, finally looking down to his member. James was maybe redder than Logan at this point. "You, uh… well, I'm not exactly sure what… you want to, uhm…" James said, and Logan had never seen him quite so nervous. If he were to be honest, it made Logan feel better about the whole situation.

He shook his head to make James stop, holding up his hand. "I—I know how to, uhm… yeah. It's okay," he assured James, trying to smile a little, but there was something other than nervous awkwardness building up in the bottom of Logan's chest. He pushed it down.

James just nodded. Then he paused before trying to adjust himself, but Logan huffed and pushed James' hands away. He pulled a leg up on the bed to get more comfortable as he gingerly put his hand around James' dick. James had already rubbed white non-scented lotion along his length, and Logan's palms were already damp with sweat, creating a slickness.

With the first stroke up, then back down to the base, James tilted his head back, giving a shuddering gasp. Logan felt a rush to his own head, and a tingling in his pelvis that he refused to acknowledge. This was so taboo. This wasn't supposed to happen. But clearly, the point of something being taboo was that it felt good and wrong when it finally did happen. At this point, though, Logan completely refused that it felt good. He wanted to help James, make him feel better; that was all.

Logan drew his hand up and down with just a touch more vigor. His eyes moved from his job to James' face, just to see the effect he was having. It was a noticeable effect, at least, even from the first few strokes. James had his head tilted back against the headboard, his eyes closed and mouth open just slightly with short breaths. When he opened his eyes and looked directly at Logan, Logan swallowed and immediately lowered his eyes back to his hand on James' dick, which may not have been much less awkward, he realized.

Though the more that thought popped up in Logan's mind, that this situation was awkward, the more he noticed that it wasn't really… It was… kind of hot. James looked really good with a thin veil of sweat forming on his cheeks and forehead, drawing his hair against his skin. Logan's heartbeat picked up as he considered he would really like to see James get even more worked up.

A little more pressure with the ends of his fingers, a short twist with his wrist, and James gasped shakily, closing his eyes again. Logan was watching his face again, and he licked his lips without even thinking about it. He bit onto his bottom lip when James gave a little moan and grasped onto the sheets with his good hand.

Wow. James' voice when he moaned was almost as melodic as when he sang, and Logan never thought he'd be in this sort of a position, trying to coax more moaning out of James because he liked the sound so much. What could he say? He was surprising himself at every turn, noting how he actually enjoyed the girth and firmness of James' cock against his palm and fingers, the pleasured lift of James' eyebrows, the way he felt hot all over but could stand to get hotter. Logan never knew he could feel this… horny. Especially for _James_.

But he threw himself into it. He braced his spare hand against the bed, quickening his pace. On a gut instinct he began running his thumb over the head of James' penis on each stroke upwards. It brought another of those sweet-sounding moans from James, whose gasping breaths definitely picked up. Most of the lotion had been massaged into James' skin by now but it clearly didn't make a difference in the amount of pleasure James was getting from this, and it didn't change how much Logan wanted to make him come now.

No way this was what Kendall had been alluding to.

"Logan…" James growled under his breath through gritted teeth, and Logan had never heard his name sound so good. He leaned forward just a little to jerk harder against James' shaft, moving as fast as he could as he chewed anxiously on his lip. His eyes were locked with James' now and they were both sweating, though James was certainly a darker red than Logan.

They held eyes for a few moments before James squeezed his shut with a strangled sound. "Oh… _Logan_…" he managed before Logan shot forward over him, his free hand grasping at the back of James' neck. He pressed his mouth to James' pushing in with his tongue as James moaned against his lips, hitting his climax with that kiss. Logan moved his tongue hungrily, continuing to jerk his hand up and down as James came, and Logan felt a hot wetness dripping over his hand and hitting his shirt. At the time, he didn't care, really. He just wanted to draw out the feeling in James, the last few strokes making him jerk his hips up and whine loudly into Logan's mouth.

Even when he stopped moving his hand, Logan kept it on James' dick, holding on to the kiss as long as he could. Finally, he had to breathe and broke away with a deep inhale.

James looked spent, panting and sweating, and his lips and cheeks were the same shade of red. It was a good look on him, Logan thought fleetingly. James sighed into a small smile and whispered, "Thanks…"

Then Logan's brain turned back on. He estimated it had been off for a good five to ten minutes without the operator noticing. Probably because he had been too distracted giving a handjob at the wheel. He sat back quickly, taking his hands off James as if the other boy's skin had suddenly become searing hot. It didn't matter so much, though, that his hands weren't on James anymore, because there was still some James on his hand and shirt. Logan's suddenness to get off of James had gotten him staring at Logan, clearly confused. Which made sense. Logan had just kissed him in the middle of a climax and then jumped off him like he was diseased.

They both opened their mouths to speak, but neither said anything when they expected the other to speak. After a few moments sitting in silence, James finally asked, "Is something… are you alright?" Logan figured it was probably a legitimate question, that he probably looked a little like he was in shock.

But he raised his eyebrows and gave a slow nod. "I'm… I'm fine. I'm great…" The corner of his mouth lifted up slightly in something of a half-smile.

James sighed a short laugh, obviously relieved. "Well. Me, too!" he grinned excitedly in true James Diamond fashion, never really seeing anything in a situation but what he wanted to see. And clearly, James didn't want to see the awkwardness that had settled back over Logan at giving him a handjob.

Logan shifted a little on the bed, his previous excitement turning into uncomfortable stiffness. He coughed a bit, then chanced a look at his shirt, somewhat spattered with whitish fluid he noticed for the first time looked a little like the liquid laundry detergent he'd used for James' clothes. He made a face, to which James responded with a quiet chuckle. "You should maybe borrow one of my shirts," he said, gesturing to the basket of clean clothes Logan had originally entered the room for.

That gave Logan pause, but he nodded and got up, cringing at himself as he wiped his hand on his shirt. It didn't matter if he got it messier now, right? He hesitated before taking off his polo and replacing it with a v-neck t-shirt. It wasn't regular Logan-style, but at least the front was decorated with some designer detail and not semen…

Freshly changed, Logan turned to James again with a frown, asking suddenly, "Did you plan this?"

James had pulled his boxers back up, but stopped in his process of trying to re-zip his jeans. He raised his eyebrows at Logan, sputtering a little. "_Me_? Logan, come _on_." That was all James really had to say for Logan to sigh and nod, going back to the bed to sit next to James, who was struggling with his broken wrist trying to fix his pants. Logan figured it wasn't any more personal than they'd just been for him to button and zip James' jeans for him, so he did as James spoke."Are you… upset with me?"

Logan widened his eyes a little. "What? No! No… It's just… a favor I didn't really expect to do for you, so…"

James cocked an eyebrow. "So you thought I set you up to give me a handjob? Well… maybe if I were clever enough, I would have," he confessed with a smirk.

Logan's eyebrows shot up as high as they would go and he quickly swallowed whatever words he might have had to say before James spoke. It was a flattering statement, to be honest, but it did catch Logan completely off guard. Was he… that good? Or did James actually… think of him in a sexual manner? After a few moments of trying to regurgitate those swallowed words, Logan finally just settled with a simple, "…neat."

That, in James' not-quite-humble opinion, was a good response. He just grinned at Logan enthusiastically for a few moments before looking slightly past him at the basket of clothes. "Are you… gonna put my clothes away?"

A wave of relief washed over Logan at the familiar expectancy from his immodest friend. That sounded more like the James he was used to, despite Logan's appreciation of James' come-ons. Kendall's advice from before about James expecting too much resonated in Logan as he smirked. "I'm not your wife, James," he said, standing from the bed and pushing the laundry basket towards James' closet with his foot. "I am done doing your laundry," he said, turning at the doorway to face James, who looked a little confused. "But… I could… _possibly_ stay on board for other favors…" Logan smirked a little, raising his eyebrows. He was proud of himself for keeping his face from flushing hot when James' expression relaxed into something of a surprised smile.

Logan opened the door behind him and slipped out of the room before waiting for James' response, preferring to leave things at a place where he didn't necessarily have to plunge himself into a full-blown identity crisis. He had enjoyed jerking James off, if he was going to be honest, and James clearly enjoyed it also, and if Logan's brain tried to flip the on switch and berate him with questions he wasn't prepared to answer, then Logan was just going to beat it down with a stick. A nervous, awkward, really hot stick.

He hesitated by the door for a moment before heading for the bathroom to wash his hands, a little bounce in his step. In the back of his mind, he briefly considered detailing his exploits to Kendall just to bring their conversation days before full-circle. However, he deemed it best if there were some things Kendall didn't know about how far Logan was taking the helping-James-out thing.


End file.
